


Take me away when summer ends

by Apenootje



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: A little bit of angst, Established Relationship, Fantasy AU, Loosely based on medieval Russian History, M/M, Mild Swearing, Nomad Otabek, Sort of history Au, Werewolf Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-07 16:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20820428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apenootje/pseuds/Apenootje
Summary: “Take me away Yura.”The warm suffocating summer breeze rustled through the dry grass, settling on his chest in a way that left Otabek sweating and uncomfortable. He felt restless.Everything itched and annoyed him. The sensation of the blades of grass on his skin. The sheep grazing around his head and bleating in his ear. The slow undecipherable expressions on their faces. The feeling that the very time seemed to slip through his fingers as he stared at the blue cloudless sky. Precious time he should have done something with.Run,everything inside of him screamed.Flee, now you still can. Watch out or it will be too late.





	Take me away when summer ends

“Take me away Yura.” 

The warm suffocating summer breeze rustled through the dry grass, settling on his chest in a way that left Otabek sweating and uncomfortable. He felt restless. Everything itched and annoyed him. The sensation of the blades of grass on his skin. The sheep grazing around his head and bleating in his ear. The slow undecipherable expressions on their faces. The feeling that the very time seemed to slip through his fingers as he stared at the blue cloudless sky. Precious time he should have done something with. 

_Run,_ everything inside of him screamed. _Flee, now you still can. Watch out or it will be too late._

“Hmm, what?” 

Otabek pushed himself up on his elbows to look at the naked man who stood waist deep in the river washing himself. A puzzled look on his down-turned face, his soaked blonde hair sticking to his body, a trickle of water making its way down his chest to the muscles of his stomach. 

The man looked like a mirage. His skin so pale it almost glowed, even despite the tan he had gotten from spending hours in the summer sun. As always Otabek was struck by how otherworldly he looked, luring Otabek towards him as a moth to a light since the moment they had met. Since the moment Otabek had gazed into his beautiful blue green eyes. Eyes no man had in his lands. Eyes that still made Otabek wonder sometimes if he had ran into a God. 

An ancient roaming trickster God, wandering the earth looking for new followers as his former left their old pantheon behind and flocked around a single new God. 

“Take me with you when you migrate.” 

Yuri froze with one hand halfway to his arm, his eyes suddenly upon Otabek like a sighthound when it sees a rabbit. Otabek couldn’t stop the shiver from going down his spine. For a second he wondered if he had made a wrong choice, if Yuri would be mad. However the man’s face quickly mellowed again his attention returning to washing the grime of his other arm. It was as if Otabek never had said something, as if he had never heard. Until the man spoke. 

“What about your family? Your tribe? Aren’t you supposed to lead them to safety and prosperity? To lead them to war and fame?”

_War._

The word alone was enough to make Otabek feel nauseous. The memories of the battlefields he had attended spread like ink in his mind. Ever so slowly taking over his vision, his hearing, his smell. Gone was the gentle wind, gone the mellow looking grazing sheep. 

Wood smoke, blood, sweat, moaning, screaming horses and people begging for mercy as he let his sword come down. His father’s hand resting on his shoulder feeling as heavy as lead as they inspected the fallen. The proud smile, the words he roared. 

He could feel acid in his throat, could hear the blood rushing in his ears, his heart skipping beats. 

_Never again._ That time was behind him, he had sworn it to himself 

Yet his muscles wouldn’t relax, because he knew better. If he didn’t leave his home he would be on the battlefield again and again. Never being able to rest until he would lose, the battle and his life. The elders would make sure of it, his father would make sure of it. Until his death he would never be able to sleep peacefully again. It already evaded him most of the days. 

“What about them Yura?” he finally spat, his jaws clenched tight against the flood of feelings. “They don’t want me. They want someone I cannot be. Someone that will do their bidding. Someone to conquer and bind the tribes that are beyond mending, and then leave them to an heir that will most likely die young, desperately trying till their last breath to keep them together. I am not that man. I am no legendary king of old. But no one seems to realize that. They are already discussing alliances, marriages and wars, while their advisers backstab them and press gold in my hands to betray everyone.”

He felt tired and bitter, the memories pushing at each other for a chance to make him feel miserable. He wanted to sleep, wanted for the memories to go away forever. But he knew there to be no escape. 

“You were the one to bring back the barbarians head. Your fault.” 

It was as if Yuri had slapped him in the face. His anxiety tipping into anger. How could he? How dare he? He hadn’t been there. Hadn’t seen the coldness in the eyes of his opponent, as if the man had already died. Hadn’t felt steel on his own skin like Otabek had. He hadn’t been seconds away from death before moving before thinking and sinking his sword in his opponent’s stomach. 

If Otabek had had a choice he wouldn’t have brought back the head either. He wouldn’t even have been there in the first place. 

He looked up. His eyes probably showing the cold fury he felt inside, but Yuri didn’t even flinch. He had tried to keep his expression blank, yet no matter how carefully he had built the mask Otabek could still see the thing he tried to hide. It was written in his eyes clear as day. 

Yuri was declaring checkmate. 

He had apparently been playing some sort of game. A game that Otabek didn’t know the rules of, and it was no use learning them. Yuri had already claimed Otabek’s defeat.  
The arrogance of it pissed Otabek off even more than anything else. His mind, corrupted by war and confused by anger and pain, had already filled in the blanks for him. Showed him pushing Yuri down in the water, his hands clenched tight on that pale throat he loved so much. Squeezing. Just squeezing and holding him down until he would stop moving. 

_Do it. _The darkness that accompanied him with every battle whispered. _ You will learn to like it. Nothing will tie you down after this. Fame will follow you for eternity. _

He felt so tired all of a sudden. Tired of the betrayal of his own mind and of the man that he was supposed to be able to trust unconditionally. All of his fighting spirit leaking away as he saw his last means of escaping close for him. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go with Yuri anymore and alone he wouldn’t survive. His mind whispered that it was for the best. In the morning he would accept whoever his father had accepted for her hand. He would accept his fate and forget about Yuri. Would spend the rest of his life praying every day that his death would be swift. 

_No_

He refused. He hadn’t spent that long with Yuri, hadn’t worked his way through so many of these little arguments to give up now, just because this one had stung more than the others.

Otabek got up, walking towards the river with long strides. The anger taking over his every limb, straightening and steeling his back. If Yuri had been wearing a shirt he would have grabbed it by the collar. As it was he just stood eye to eye, so close he could feel Yuri’s calm breath on his face. 

“What the fuck are you saying Yuri? You think it was easy? That I felt pleasure? That I love the fame it gave me? That I sleep easy at night? Do you know me that badly?”

Otabek didn’t know what he had expected, but not for Yuri to lock eyes with him, a cruel smile on his face. The very air seemed to change, causing the sheep to look up and his warhorse to dance in place. The big brown beast seemed uncertain whether it should listen to instinct and flee or stay with its master as it sensed the predator rising under Yuri’s skin. 

“What if I am saying that?” 

Something about that statement or the way Yuri said it with a smug look in his eyes made something click. It just clicked. A single moment of clarity in the chaos.  
Otabek knew exactly what game Yuri was playing.

The anger and emotions had almost made him forget what they had been talking about. Almost made him forget that this wasn’t about Yuri’s comments about the war, or about him hurting his feelings. 

It was about Yuri taking Otabek with him. 

Yuri was skillfully avoiding the subject, herding Otabek in a position so he would forget about it. Manipulating him in such a way that Otabek himself would question his desire to live with Yuri, while making the fight about something Yuri could easily apologize for with a believable excuse. Something that would hurt Otabek but not hurt enough that it couldn’t be fixed by a little coaxing and kissing. Because Yuri knew that Otabek would return to him, because he needed him. 

Again. Yuri had fucking done it again. 

Every time Otabek had even gotten close to trying to ask to join him had ended in him getting pushed about like this. Like a mouse getting toyed by a cat. 

_Screw it. _

He wanted to play? He wanted the win? Fine, he could have it. Otabek wasn’t playing anymore.

“I got the hint Yura. You don’t want me to go with you. You don’t love me enough to care. Fine. I know when I am not wanted.”

Otabek turned his back on him in disgust, walking towards his horse without even thinking about looking back. But he wasn’t even able to move further then two steps before Yuri’s pale arms slid around his chest, his forehead resting against Otabek's back.

“Peace my love, I’m sorry. I was just jerking your chain… again.”

That didn’t made it easier. Yet no matter how much he tried to hold on to his anger, he could feel himself relax a little beside himself. No matter how much Yuri had hurt him, he just couldn’t walk away. He loved him too much. His arms the first place in a long time where he had felt safe.

Otabek was that weak

“Why… Why do you keep doing this every time I ask to go with you? Like I am some sort of whining child and not the man that loves you more than anything in this world. ”

“A last attempt to push you away. To make you see reason that in my arms is not the place you should be. But every time I get close to cutting you off completely I am too weak to finish it. I panic and can’t go through, pulling you back again. This time I believed to be determined yet here I am once again.”

Yuri let out a deep sigh, then dropped down pulling him along. His head nestling in the usual spot between Otabek’s collarbone and neck.

“I do not live an easy life, Beka. Food is scarce, danger is everywhere. I do not want you to suffer, because I love you more than anything in the world too. I prefer dying over seeing you harmed. ”

“So you just leave me here? Again and again? Is that your idea of safe? To go insane twice? Once from going to war over and over and if I survive that from waiting for you? You wish for the rest of my life to be pining? To be praying to the Gods of old and new that no harm comes to you when I know that you are being chased? Do you wish to drive me mad?”

A confident smirk appeared on Yuri’s lips, but it was thin as smoke there was no happiness in his eyes. He knew Otabek was right. 

“They never caught me...”

“They did almost.”

Otabek still felt cold when he remembered that day. The day he was out in the fields herding his sheep waiting for his Yura to come. His lover always made it clear when he was planning on showing up. The song of the wolves could always be heard for up to two weeks in advance, leaving everyone in his camp nervous. Yet the day itself would always be random, the only warning he got his horse startling and prancing around underneath him ready to bolt. The anticipation had his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Then it seemed to stop, as his lover came out of the forest, tightly clutching his bloodstained side. His eyes holding emotions Otabek had never seen in them before. 

Pain and mortified panic. 

Yuri had fallen into a fever dream, delirious to the point that he didn’t recognize him anymore. Otabek had never been so scared. It had taken days for the fog to clear and weeks for his wounds to heal, but the scars left behind on his body and in Otabek’s mind were big. Even years later Otabek couldn’t stop feeling a rush of relieve when he saw Yuri run over the fields safe and sound. 

“Are you sure? There is a chance that you will never see your family again.”

The muscles in his back tightened, nerves all of a sudden going awry in Otabek’s body. He wanted to be excited, but couldn’t help but hesitate. Because he couldn’t help but wonder if Yuri was jerking his chain again to get his mind of those ugly memories. It was however not an opportunity he wouldn't grasp. 

“I want to try. I can hunt for food. I can make shelter, live as a hermit somewhere-“

An unbelieving snort interrupted him. 

“You? Settled? Don’t make me laugh Otabek Altin! Traveling is in your blood, you were born a nomad and you will die like one. These grasslands are the air you breathe, like the forests are mine. You will go insane.”

Otabek couldn’t help but smile a little and press a kiss to the back of Yuri’s hand. His love was right of course. It would take him a lot of work to adjust, but he was more than willing. 

“Going insane with you is better than going insane alone. I am sure you will make me feel at home. We will make it work.”

“Fine” The word sounded as a defeat, as if it had taken him all his willpower to let it pass his lips and now was left with a foul taste in his mouth. “I already feel sorry for your poor horse. It will get a heart attack when he sees his new family.”

“So you will let me?”

“Yeah, I have tried long enough to protect and discourage you. Trying to hurt you the best I could in the hope you would tell me to leave. But if you want to be a stubborn mule who am I to stop you. I am not your mother. That being said, don’t get your hopes up. I promise that I will speak to Victor. It is his call.” He hesitated for a moment, looking fragile. As if Otabek could shatter him with a touch. “I also promise that the torturing is over. I have been an awful mate, I vow that I will make it up to you. If you still want to have me. If you will forgive me. ”

That settled it. Because no matter how many times Yuri avoided the subject or did what he had done before, he had never promised. 

Because Yuri never broke a promise. 

He reached out a hand, cupping his lover’s pale, soft skin. His calloused thumb stroking over his lips as he contemplated what to do, he could make him suffer jerk his chain like Yuri had done. He couldn’t however, Yuri’s big eyes looking at him like a begging dog made him feel terrible. Otabek hated it. That wasn’t how his man was supposed to look.

“Not happy for a second that I will be near you at all times?”

Otabek smiled as Yuri seemed to shake himself and pounced, pinning him to the ground before pressing a kiss to Otabek’s lips. A sweet languid kiss that made his toes curl and his body buzz. 

“Of course not.” Yuri mumbled against his lips. “Would never miss you, nor doing this at all.”

He gasped as his lovers hands slid up his shirt, followed by his lips and teeth, leaving marks next to ones that had already faded a little. 

Gods, he loved that man. 

They spent the next hour entangled, their bodies rubbing and moving against each other until they both cried out loud enough to startle the birds. After which they collapsed next to each other in the grass, their chests heaving from the rush in their bodies. 

Yuri didn’t even bother to get dressed or clean again, pressing a final kiss on Otabek’s lips before jumping up. His body molded and reformed into a massive white wolf, his paws landing inches away from Otabek’s face. Yet when he let out a growl and bared his teeth to intimidate him, Otabek just chuckled and scratched him behind the ear. Yuri would never hurt him, and no matter how much his body had changed, he was still his beloved Yuri. The proof of it the wolf's blue-green eyes. 

“Be careful, and please come back soon.”

The wolf just looked at him like he was stupid, if he could have rolled his eyes Otabek knew he would have. Instead Yuri threw his head back head back in an eerily beautiful howl that had the livestock running. A song that echoed through the woods as his pack joined in and kept going when Yuri stopped to give Otabek’s face a lick from his chin to his eye and bolted.

Leaving him behind again for what Otabek hoped would be the last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my word. I thought this would be a nice quick edit and post, I mean the plot was finished like 3 years ago and I thought it only needed some editing, but oh boy was I wrong. I have been chipping away at this thing for about two weeks and I feel like I could go on for two weeks more, because I dislike an awful lot about it. From the plot to the writing style to the grammar to the characters. However, I have more stories to work on, and at this point I don't think working on it for any time longer will help much, as I don't know if this thing is actually as bad as I made it to be in my head or if it is just the frustration talking because it is not turning out the way I wanted it to. 
> 
> Anyway, I came up with this story about three years ago while studying Russian history for a semester. It is inspired by the Kievan Rus time period (9-13th century) even though it doesn't really show through in the story itself. I had this idea of Yuri being a werewolf/shapeshifter being hunted after Christianity got a hold in Kievan Rus, and Otabek being part of the Mongolian tribes that attacked the region. This was, just as That wasn't love that was just hope, supposed to be a longer story, but after three years I have forgotten the plot, so I will most likely leave it at this. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed


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